Writing is skating on words down a glass highway of dreams. If you’re lucky, someone is following you.

Tag: Paranormal Romance

As an author, I write both teen and adult fiction. Though there are many similarities between the two styles and novels, there is one major difference that seems to be missing from some of today’s teen fiction: teenage life and issues.

Teens live in a world dominated by school, peer pressure, raging hormonal drives, bossy adults (parents?) and on many occasions, a highly dysfunctional family setting. Teens are mostly dependent on these family members who may not be very trustworthy or dependable. Teens have all the thoughts, feelings and urges of adults, but they haven’t quite adjusted to that world yet.

Their existence is a purgatory floating between childish carefree abandon and the weight of responsibility and freedoms of adulthood.

These young adults are told to behave, as though children, and yet, at the same time, they are expected to tackle adult tasks like college applications, job hunting, dating, driving, and all the pressures of the real world. It’s no wonder they seem schizophrenic at times. The constant mixed signals are enough to confuse anyone.

Do we expect them to act like adults while treating them as children? Yes, we do.

In the world of teen fiction, there are many novels today that seem to have forgotten what it means to be a teenager.

So, as you scour the shelves for YA/teen novels, ask yourself, how many books have you found that are loyal to teens and the challenges they face? Many of these books are simply a platform for some adult to talk down to teenagers in an attempt to preach adult values and morals.

In writing for teens, please remember that acne-ridden, awkward, voice-breaking, hair-growing time in life when very little made sense, especially if it was coming from a math teacher, but somehow, someway, we survived to adulthood. Remember how it felt when some adult started preaching about making choices and taking on responsibilities, and growing up, and then proceeded to tell you that you cannot have the shoes you want, and you cannot go out past 10:00 p.m., and if your hands ever touch that girl’s ass again, they will be hacked off with a blunt instrument.

In writing my first ever YA novel, I endeavored to craft a story about teens, for teens, a snapshot of that insane, difficult time in our lives when nothing makes sense, but we are expected to understand it all anyway.

About The Shepherd“Skate punks, kleptomaniacs, clairvoyant visions and reincarnation…”

“…THE SHEPHERD is unlike any other Young Adult novel you have ever read.”

Mike Evans here. Sixteen year old skate punk squatting in a white-trash trailer park with my loser drunk Dad. Seems I lost most of my friends when Dad lost our home in foreclosure. Only Anita stuck by me. Worse, I keep having strange clairvoyant visions of things that always come true.

Then I almost ran over Nadia in my Geo. A passing truck finished the job – left a crumpled heap of skin and bone on the road. I fixed her. Me.

Now this fourteen year old girl won’t leave me alone. I sorta let her sneak in my window when she needs a place to crash.

I have a double life: daytime at school, Anita, skating, and then my nights with Nadia. She’s my secret friend, gives me money and listens to my problems when nobody else will.

My world is spinning out of control. Old friends have turned enemy, my grisly visions of death won’t quit, and Anita’s intentions make my head spin. Even with all that, I’ve got bigger stuff to worry about.

About the Author
Travis Luedke is a husband, father, and author of Urban Fantasy Thriller, Paranormal Romance, Contemporary Fantasy, Young Adult Fiction, and Sci-fi. He is currently catching a 3rd degree sunburn in San Antonio, Texas, and loving every minute of it.

As the author of the Nightlife Series novels, Travis lives very vicariously through his writings. He invites you to enjoy his macabre flights of fancy, but be warned: The Nightlife Series is violent, sexy, and occasionally violently sexy.